(A dedicated wing of All India Council of Human Rights, Liberties and Social Justice - AICHLS)

Goals & Objectives…

International Council of Indian Workers (ICIW) is a wing of All India Council of Human Rights, Liberties and Social Justice – AICHLS. It has been observed that several Indians are employed abroad in lower skill level jobs. Many of the Indian low skill workers employed abroad sometimes face problems such as poor working and living conditions and other challenges. Generally issues occur during three stages – pre-deployment, post-deployment and reintegration phase. The issues mainly pertain to exploitation by recruiting agencies, withholding of passports and related documents by employers, withholding and delaying of wages and other entitlements by employers. Problems are also being faced related to access to health care, detention, removal and so on.

Issues

Deception by visa brokers and recruiting agents: They are victims of various forms of deception and trickery at the recruitment stage. These include excess charges for visas and other travel documents, processing of fake travel documents without informing the workers of their illegitimate status, recruitment for non-existent jobs, misrepresenting the job and working conditions, providing falsely inflated loans that lead to situations of bonded labour. Countless stories of migrant workers landing in the wrong country and being stranded there, being jailed for having the wrong documents, finding their salary or work conditions are not what they were promised.

Lack of awareness of pre-departure training: lack of authentic and timely information relating to overseas employment, recruitment agencies and emigration procedures makes workers dependent on intermediaries and vulnerable to exploitation.

Lack of access to remedies: The power differential between workers and recruiting agents makes it difficult for workers who face abuse to secure justice. Enforcement mechanisms are not strong enough and complaints registered rarely lead to convictions.

Vision & Mission

To help and ensure for the better offshore employment conditions, safety of Indian Workers.

Such NGOs and institutions must not have anything in their Constitutions/Aims and Objects in conflict with the Aims and Objects of All India Council of Human Rights, Liberties and Social Justice (AICHLS) as given in the Memorandum of Association